cutting cuticles

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kerrie

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Hi,

On my way home from holidays today, (today is a public holiday in australia) i get a call at 9am while we are driving in the country in the middle of no where lol.

One of my regular manicure clients who has very long lovely natural nails calls, she apoligies for calling me on a holiday but she isnt sure what to do, as yesterday she went to a large nail salon to have a manicure as she was going out last night and i was away.

She explained to me that while she was having her maincure the girl got out a pair of cutters and started cutting all the skin around her cuticles and now she is in extreme pain today, she said that all of her fingers were bleeding and she thought it wasnt normal that they should cut them as i never do.

I told her that no it wasnt normal to cut the skin and the only person that should cut skin is a doctor, not a nail tech, and she said that she tried to tell the girl to stop but the girl didnt understand english and had only been in australia for a few months ( i wouldnt have let her cut at all , but i guess some people just sit there and let people inflict pain lol )

Anyway i advised her to go along today and see her local doctor and get him to have a look at her fingers if they are very sore, and let him know exactly what had happened and to give me a call this week and let me know how it went.

Its not the first time someone has told me that their cuticles have been cut and i know it goes on in a few salons around here , its a shame really that it happens but its more of a shame that people actually sit there and take the pain from this "service".


Kerrie
 
Well on the same note..

I was in a chain of UK supermarkets the other day and noticed they are retailing nail equipmemt as endorsed by a famous makeup artist...and there were some cuticle nippers on the reverse were instructions telling the user just to cut the skin away around the nail (not a direct quote) - :rolleyes: yeah like that's a good idea...

well roll on the first court case, when someone gets a lovely infection perform minor surgery on themselves.....I can't beleive that either the company retailing didn't do their research or stroke beauty therapist would recommend this - i hope they get there asses sued for allowing such poor instructions on packing - shame on you

there was no mention of removing loose skin only :suprised:
 
I've seen people before who I could tell had a pair of nippers at home (they sell them in any drugstore or local beauty supply). The skin around the nails and toes after these people have butchered them looks horrendous! One woman's toes looked as if she'd stuck them in a food processor! That's when I look them straight in the eye and say "THROW IT AWAY!"
 
hi just finished nvq2 manicure and we were taught to cut cuticles is this wrong?
 
I don't know why ppl still refer to it as "cutting cuticles"...It makes our job that much harder to explain that we are "pushing" the cuticle to get to the dead skin underneath.
 
Cutting the cuticle is not something you can physically do.

Most end up cutting the eponychium which is living tissue and NOT the cuticle... People the cut the eponychium should be incarcerated.

In all reality, we push back the eponychium to get to the cuticle underneath. However saying that... you shouldn't push the eponychium back very far (or with much pressure). All you need to do is remove the exposed cuticle from the surface of the nail plate that rows out attached to the nail plate from underneath the eponychium.

Hope this helps
 
cutting the eponychium is also something we were told to do at college on a NVQ 2 course. I never did this as a few of my friends at college had cut each other.

You go to college and get told to do certain things and you listen to your tutor because surely they must know what they are talking about. Thank god there are sites like this.
I have never cut but only because I would never have felt comfortable doing this.
On my acrylic course we got told to dip the brush in liquid, wipe, place bead, wipe, once I ignored this advice and listened to what people on here had to say I then realised this is why I couldn't apply it right, I had no liquid left in my brush.
My tutor must have wiped her brush approx 5 -6 times per nail so therefore you follow suit.
 
Most people are taught at college that eponychium and cuticle are one and the same thing. The diagrams can't quite convey that information. On my diagram the cuticle is on the nail plate touching the line that runs round the eponychium and whilst that is the dead part it isn't visible to the eye. That is why there is so much confusion and it has taken me months to work out the difference and that is many due to putting together all the information that I have picked up on this site since being a member.

Secondly, many people are taught to cut the 'cuticle'. They are told that that is the dead skin and as long as you don't cut too much off you are improving the shape. I can only say that the times that mine have been cut it doesn't improve the shape, it leaves them quite ragged. I have also had hard skin cut away around the nail walls which at the time looks nice and feels nice but it does grow back and in my case it has been ragged so then I've ended up nipping bits to tidy it.

Thirdly there are so many different views on it. When you start asking questions you get a different answer from each tutor. But one thing remains the same, they all refer to the eponychium as the cuticle.

It does also make you wonder what else you are being taught. I've been shown to file 3 different ways by 3 different people. Now, thanks to this site and particularly Fiona Baron some of my difficulties are resolving themselves.

So, I'm really glad this issue is being discussed. It is really helpful.
 
HandyAndy said:
Most people are taught at college that eponychium and cuticle are one and the same thing. The diagrams can't quite convey that information. On my diagram the cuticle is on the nail plate touching the line that runs round the eponychium and whilst that is the dead part it isn't visible to the eye. That is why there is so much confusion and it has taken me months to work out the difference and that is many due to putting together all the information that I have picked up on this site since being a member.

Secondly, many people are taught to cut the 'cuticle'. They are told that that is the dead skin and as long as you don't cut too much off you are improving the shape. I can only say that the times that mine have been cut it doesn't improve the shape, it leaves them quite ragged. I have also had hard skin cut away around the nail walls which at the time looks nice and feels nice but it does grow back and in my case it has been ragged so then I've ended up nipping bits to tidy it.

Thirdly there are so many different views on it. When you start asking questions you get a different answer from each tutor. But one thing remains the same, they all refer to the eponychium as the cuticle.

It does also make you wonder what else you are being taught. I've been shown to file 3 different ways by 3 different people. Now, thanks to this site and particularly Fiona Baron some of my difficulties are resolving themselves.

So, I'm really glad this issue is being discussed. It is really helpful.
People have been mixing up the cuticle and the eponychium for basilliions of years ... nothing new there.

But as for filing, there are hundreds of ways to hold and use abrasives and what you are taught is not necessarily wrong but just different.

It is sadly well known that the standard of college tutors for nails is pretty abysmal (apologies to the good ones out there, but this is a fact). It is important to look at training carefully and go for the company/college/school with the good reputation. Everyone wants to find everything on their door step these days and it is not possible. If you were searching for anything else you would look for reputation ... doctor, dentist, or even what type of washingmachine to buy. Why don't people do this for education?? Mad!

Invest in yourself and your future by going where the good reputation is. I know it is not easy for some, but everything is possible if you want it badly enough. If you compromise then ... you compromise yourself and your future business.
 
Very true all of it.

I probably didn't clarify filing part - some people see-saw, some file one way and then go backwards. I couldn't get to the bottom of it and that was before I started to wonder what were the best files for natural nails!
 
my sister cuts her cuticles with a metal thing that just slices them off (looks like a little fork) i call it the "the digger" i wouldnt recommend this as it is highly addictive and her cuticles look sore i have thrown this away a number of times but the little swine keeps appearing again...i think she has got hundreds of them stashed away.....Kat xxx
 
I have an article here, it goes....

NAIL TECHS WARNED TO STOP CUTTING CUITICLES
Some nail technicians are still cutting cuticles, a practice considered to be an absolute 'no no' in beauty circles.

While there are no reports of any adverse reactions amougst clients so far in this country, the American nail industry is fielding complaints from clents who have been severly affected by this practice, some of whom are seeking compensation.

Darlene Lopes, 50, of Antioch, California, visited a nail salon for the first time on Monther's Day two years ago. Lopez said she contracted a rare infection when a manicurist cut her cuticles until they bled.

One month after her salon visit she noticed a disturbing green fungus under her nails. Her condition worsened and six moths later her doctor diagnosed an aggressive staphylkococcus infection that had spread to the bone. She eventually had to have her inted finger amputated below the second knuckle bone. She filed a lawsuit against the salon alst November, demanding $274.000 in damages.

And last year in San Mateo Country, California, a pedicurist shaved off Tijana Fahla's calluses with a contaminated razor tool, causing the woman's toes to bleed and, county health investigators believe, exposing her to hepatitis C.

Such cases are rare, but common enought to raise concerns in the coutnry wihere it is only a matter ot time. For this situation to occur even once in a salon is one too many times.

According to nail salon hygiene expert andf Baylor College of Medicine dermatologist Dr Shelly Sekula-Rodrlgues, although nail technicians know that cutting cuticles during a manicure procedure draws blood, and is not an accepted procedure, they continue to do it and, more importantly, do so without an established protocol in place to protect workers and customers from disease exposure.
 
From all you guys, great help thanks,

Daniele
 
if you cut/slice the eponychium you end up having a much harder job to make the nails look nice as the eponychium makes thicker tissue (scarring) and it looks even more unsightly than it did in the first place.
it's there for a reason!!!
 
I lost a client a few months back and later found out it was because i didn't cut her eponychium. Telling her why i didn't obviously wasn't enough for her!
 
alison27 said:
hi just finished nvq2 manicure and we were taught to cut cuticles is this wrong?
Me too - then when i went on my creatve foundation & was told how to do cuticle work properly, also in college i too learnt the cuticle & the epinichium the wrong way round!!! xx
 
I have a friend and been doing manicure & pedicure for 20 years and she cut the cuticle & ingrown nails really well. I dont cut cuticle cause Im too scared to cut the skin as well.
 
thats just terrible they way i was taught nails is a beauty treatment we do not cuticles we dot not inflict pain i would be seeking legal advice if that was me or go back to the salon and tell them what they did was wrong and tell them how much pain i was in a demand my money back poor lady she must be deverstated
 
i was in my home town yesterday and was secretly watching a nail bar in my local market and was disgusted to see a "tech" filing a womans nails so bad that the woman was wincing then the tech next to her asked to borrow the file as hers had stopped working the tech just passed it on and began using it i was disgusted that if there had been blood she could have passed something on
 
the amount of peeps ive had this wk whove told me that their cuticles (sorry! epy....) have been left bleeding! makes me look so much better though!
 

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